


Life Finds a Way

by wordsmithraven



Series: The Light of a Star over the Sea [1]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Background Relationships, Domestic Fluff, Episode: s02e14 The Fair Folk, F/M, Family Feels, Fluff, Gen, Light Angst, M/M, Rare Pairings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-30
Updated: 2017-06-30
Packaged: 2018-11-21 07:16:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11352522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wordsmithraven/pseuds/wordsmithraven
Summary: Alec is starting to suspect that Luke might be dating his mom and he's just not sure what to think about it. When he brings up his concerns with Magnus, the conversation opens his eyes to more than just his unsure feelings about his mother's love life. Perhaps it wasn't just his mother having a hard time with love.





	Life Finds a Way

**Author's Note:**

> Give it up for the season of the rare pairs. I'm kind of living for how much this show is opening my eyes to the fact that I'm a sucker for pairings that go against the grain.
> 
> Can y'all believe we might actually get a Luke/Maryse love line? Those conversations she had with Luke last ep just about sold me.
> 
> Anyway, I decided to write a quick, really short one-shot from Alec's POV. It got a little angstier than I was intending but I hope you all like it. The title is from a line in the movie that's mention in the fic.
> 
> Drop some comments for me! Until next time.

 

“I think my mom and Luke are…kind of seeing each other.”

Alec said the words abruptly, breaching the quiet he and Magnus had settled into in the living room of Magnus’ loft. There was no reason for him to talk about it then but he supposed the thought had been sitting in the back of his mind all day and now it was time for it to move to the forefront.

Alec was laying curled on his side on Magnus’ couch with his head in Magnus’ lap. They had been drinking wine, as had become their tradition at the end of long work days, and Alec had gotten a little tipsy-sleepy so he’d decided to lie down. It was a little uncomfortable to fold his tall frame to fit on the furniture, but the comfort of feeling Magnus’ firm thigh beneath Alec’s cheek made the sting in his calves worth it.

Magnus had his elegant fingers running through Alec’s hair. He didn’t speak at Alec’s pause, only humming at the comment and drinking more from his wine glass.

Alec turned his head to look up at the other man. “I told you before how mother finally moved back to the Institute three days ago after…everything with my father was finalized. I saw them today after the weekly Cabinet Meeting. They were sitting in her office and talking.” He hesitated and licked his lips. “They were holding hands.”

“Is it a problem?”

“No, not a problem exactly. I just…don’t know what to make of it. I consider Luke a friend and colleague but she’s my _mother_.”

Magnus shifted and settled more into the back of the couch. Alec’s head shook on Magnus’ flexing legs.

“Well, as I understand it, your mother and Luke have known each other many years and were friends, even from when they were children in Idris. I may not have had any fond memories of Maryse in my years of knowing her but Luke, I imagine, has had many.”

Alec turned over onto his back, throwing his socked feet up to rest over the arm of the couch. In the distance, he heard a cat squall and the sounds of little padded feet scuttling across the rooftop enclosure.

“It’s still a little strange. He’s practically Clary’s dad. If it ever got serious between them, it would be like I’m related to her,” Alec said and shuddered in disgust.

Magnus laughed, loud and boisterous, his eyes crinkling at the corners and his nose scrunching up in that beautiful way when Magnus was unguarded.

“A fate worse than death, I’m sure.”

Alec huffed, feeling completely reasonable in his aversion to Clary Fray. Alec could already tell her nonsense would be ten times worse if he actually had to think of her as his step-sister while it was happening. Raziel, he was already groaning and it hadn’t even happened yet.

Magnus laughed again and angled his wine glass to the side so he could lean down and lightly press a kiss to Alec’s furrowed brow, smoothing it away with affection. _Damn him._

“You’ll get used to it, Alexander. There’s always growing pains when it comes to blending families. You must know this from Jace’s adoption.”

Alec waved his hand. “That was different. We were taking Jace into our family unit. It was just making us bigger, like when we got Max. This is my family being split apart and changed around completely.”

Magnus finished up his wine and magically sent the empty glass to the coffee table.

“What worries you? Do you not approve of Luke?”

Alec shrugged. “No, Luke is great. Like I said, he’s a friend and I respect him a lot. It’s just…you know, what if something goes wrong? What if my mom gets hurt again? Plus, it would just completely make it awkward between Luke and me.”

Magnus was silent for a moment. He looked down at Alec with a heavy, contemplative expression and rubbed one hand down Alec’s tank top covered chest. His other hand was cradling Alec’s cheek, heavy rings warm on Alec’s skin and the pad of his thumb gentle at the side of Alec’s mouth.

“The fact that Maryse is opening her heart again is…significant. Having your partner, someone you love with everything you are, cheat on you is a wound that is very hard to heal from. It’s a festering thing. It can eat away at your self-confidence, your trust, your very ability to believe in love. It took me many years to recover after…after Camille…”

Magnus paused, pain shining from his smoky, kohl lined eyes. He spoke about his recovery but Alec could see that the hurt Camille had dealt him still affected him. He had told Alec some of what Camille had done to him before so Alec instantly understood how the older man could connect those feelings to his mother’s situation. Magnus didn’t particularly _like_ Maryse at all but his natural empathy made him open to her plight. That compassion was something Alec absolutely adored about Magnus.

Alec sat up from Magnus’ lap, pulling his legs around and scooting closer to the other man. He wrapped his arm around Magnus’ shoulders, resting it lengthwise along the back of the couch. Magnus smiled in gratitude and continued talking.

“What I mean is that Luke and Maryse might be good for each other. In my experience, it is better that she hasn’t given up hope after Robert and is still willing to try again. It’s better than growing cold and cynical, distorting all love around the actions of one selfish man.”

Alec could see Magnus’ point. He definitely didn’t want his mother to never love again. Especially not if they all had to see his dad happy with some new woman whenever they were in Idris. His mom deserved to be happy too.

Magnus shifted in his arms, pulling away to lean his back against the arm of the couch and swing his legs up onto Alec’s lap. He was wearing loose pajamas and the smooth silk felt cool under Alec’s hands. The fabric whispered as it rubbed across the cotton of Alec’s own pajama bottoms.

Magnus suddenly gave a wicked, cheeky grin and Alec braced himself for what was most definitely going to be an embarrassing comment.

“Besides, Luke is a rare specimen of a man. Honorable, charismatic, strong, and gorgeous. No offense to your father but Maryse is _absolutely_ upgrading.”

“Hey, that’s half my genes, you know.” Then the words really registered. Alec closed his eyes and tensed. “Please tell me you do not have a thing for Luke. By the Angel, Magnus…did you…?”

Magnus’ grin widened. “Sadly, it was never an option. Luke and I didn’t have a good start: I was a warlock and he was a Circle member. By the time he had renounced the Circle, he was already head over heels for Jocelyn. Besides, I’m fairly certain he is _tragically_ heterosexual. A loss for all of us.”

Alec could feel his whole face contort in incredulity. All he could think about now was Luke and Magnus together. His entire body was frozen with horror.

Magnus laughed again, head thrown back in merriment.

“Your face is priceless! Tell me, have you really never noticed how handsome Luke is?”

“No! I mean, yes, _obviously_ I can see how good looking he is but not…like that. He’s old enough to be my father.”

Magnus grabbed Alec’s hand, red lacquered fingernails scratching affectionately at his forearm. His smile was as unrelentingly teasing as before.

“Well, I figured you must have a thing for older men…considering.” He wiggled his eyebrows.

Alec gave him an unamused look. “That’s different, Magnus. You look barely older than thirty. Without your goatee, you look all of twenty. Luke looks very much his age.”

“Are you saying you can’t appreciate a nice, silver fox?”

“A what?” Alec asked, confused. He’d never heard the term before. What the hell did foxes have to do with anything?

Magnus waved a hand. “It’s an older person, usually a man, whose hair is going gray with age but is still considered to be very attractive. A ‘fox’ is someone who’s sexy or beautiful. Thus, ‘silver fox.’”

Alec nodded. That made sense. “Huh, okay. Well, no, I don’t find random older men attractive like that. Definitely not…not since I met you.”

Alec blushed embarrassingly. It was something he only ever did around Magnus. He hated it. It made him feel like a teenager. Plus all this talk about ages wasn’t helping any either.

Magnus smiled softly and reached up to brush a knuckle across Alec’s cheek. He blushed even more at the feel of it.

“That’s very sweet, Alexander.”

Alec smiled and looked down at his hand wrapped around Magnus’ fingers. “I guess it’s a good thing you like silver foxes though. I’ll still have something to offer you in thirty years.”

He grimaced and tightened his grip suddenly. Why had he said _that_ of all things? Camille’s slithering voice whispered in his mind. _‘Too bad it won’t last. I’d say he’s about twenty years from male patterned baldness.’_

He hated that he thought about her at all. She had only said that to hurt Magnus, but her barbed words were still digging their hooks into Alec’s mind. She was wrong about Magnus but right about him. Magnus was definitely the type to last, but one day Alec would look up to find himself aging with Magnus frozen in time beside him. Eventually, if he wasn’t struck down early by some demon, Alec would die and leave Magnus behind, in pain and heartache.

Alec shook his head. Camille’s words were poison. He knew that he shouldn’t let them mean anything but Alec still found them difficult to shake off.

Magnus leaned forward and grabbed Alec’s chin. He pulled Alec’s face around so he could look at Alec directly. His brown eyes bored into Alec’s and his gentle expression covered up some pain Alec didn’t dare to try and unravel.

“I do not think of love or beauty in that way. I am not one of those who thinks that only the young are worthy of my eye. I am far too old for that to hold any weight. I have loved many people, Alexander, for many reasons. Some of them I loved for decades and saw them change from young to old. Some of them I started loving after age had already loosened their muscles and weakened their joints. I can find beauty in anyone. I fall in love with the soul, not the outward appearance.”

Magnus laced their fingers in his right hand and rubbed his left up and down Alec’s bare arm. The hairs on Alec’s skin rose to attention and he pulled in a shuddering breath at the soft touches.

“In sixty years, when your eyes have gone with cataracts and your hands tremble with arthritis”—Magnus smiled and slapped his hand on Alec’s abs—“even when _this_ has turned into a flabby paunch…I will love you just as deeply, just as completely, as I love you now. There is nothing that could change about your body that would make me stop loving you.”

Magnus cupped his left hand lightly around Alec’s neck and pulled Alec in for a kiss. Alec’s eyelids fluttered closed and he relaxed into Magnus’ pull. They stayed that way for a while, mouths pressed together and lips slowly moving over lips until they had deepened into something intimate and longing.

Eventually Magnus drew back and pressed his forehead to Alec’s, their breathing going fast and sure between them. Alec opened his eyes to see Magnus' face so close to his own. He had never felt as calm or as warm as he did then. All of his niggling doubts from the memory of Camille were gone from his mind, hopefully to never return.

Alec smiled. “Good, then. I wouldn’t want you to strain yourself trying to be with me. I hear the elderly have to be careful about undue stress like that.”

Magnus cackled in delight and jerked back to lean against the couch arm again. He slapped Alec in his chest.

“So you _do_ have a thing for older men after all. You lied to me, Alec.”

Alec gave a grunt at the slap but his wolfish smile never dropped from his face.

“Only for certain ones with bulging muscles and a penchant for stylish clothing.”

Alec’s mind flashed back to the conversation about Luke and he shuddered. “Definitely not ones who are dating my _mother_.”

Magnus’ laugh settled down into a grin. He had a sparkle in his eye when he asked his next question. “Are you sure you’ve never seen an older man—other than me, of course—and thought he was handsome? Not once? What about before you met me?”

Alec felt heat flood his cheeks for the second time that night. Alec stilled, trying to will his blush away, but Magnus had already caught on to Alec’s state of mind.

“You have! Who was it? Some sexy older shadowhunter? Oh, or another downworlder? Tell me,” he said excitedly.

Alec closed his eyes and shook his head, reluctant to talk.

His mind had struck on a memory from when he was younger. Izzy had elected to celebrate her fifteenth birthday with a mundane movie marathon with Alec and Jace. It was during that phase of hers when she was obsessively into monster movies from the nineties and she had dragged the two of them into it. Alec hated most mundane things but he had never been able to deny his little sister anything. So he had gritted his teeth and sat with his siblings for six straight hours in front of the television in her room. It had been torture for the most part but there had been one movie that had stayed with him, and in that movie there had been one man in particular.

He hadn’t really told anyone, not even Izzy. He had been as deep in the closet as he could possibly go at that point and he hadn’t really felt comfortable talking about his…feelings then. Not even with Izzy, who had already sort of known he was gay.

Alec opened his eyes and steeled himself. There was no point in being embarrassed anyway. Everyone had weird crushes in their lifetime. Right? He might as well get it over with.

Alec glanced over to Magnus and found him staring raptly in Alec’s direction, the smile that had been on his face sinking in puzzlement.

“When I was eighteen, Izzy made me and Jace watch a bunch of mundane movies with her. I don’t remember what it was called but there was one movie about dinosaurs in modern times on an island. There was an actor who I _might_ have found attractive in it. I don’t remember his name.”

Magnus’ eyes widened in shock and his mouth dropped open a little. “Jurassic Park? The one with raptors and the giant tyrannosaurus rex?”

Alec watched as a smile almost completely took over Magnus’ face. “Jeff Goldblum,” Magnus said.

“Who?”

“The older man of your teenage dreams. It was Jeff Goldblum.”

Alec looked skeptical. “How could you possibly know which actor I liked? I haven’t even described him.”

Magnus pursed his lips and rubbed at his web shaped ear cuff. “Because I am living proof that you have good taste and I refuse to believe it was anyone not up to par with me, at _least_.”

Alec tried valiantly not to roll his eyes at Magnus’ vague narcissism. He failed, however, and Magnus gave a playful glare.

Magnus sat up. “Alright, then. I’ll show you an image of him. If I’m right, what will you give me?”

Alec smiled and decided to play along. “What do you want?”

Magnus was silent for a moment as he thought. Then he said, “At least twice a month, I want you to watch an old movie with me and pick out the guys you think are attractive.”

Alec was confused. “Why?”

Magnus caught his gaze again, sharp and intense. His tone was more serious than Alec had expected. “Because I want you to feel like it’s okay for you to find men sexy. Not just me, but any man.”

Alec bit his lip uncertainly. “But I have you now. What does it matter?”

“It doesn’t, really. I just want you to know that it doesn’t mean you’re weird or that I think you’re going to be unfaithful or something. Finding people attractive or aesthetically pleasing is a normal part of life. You don’t have to hide that from me…or yourself.”

Alec wasn’t sure what to say. He wasn’t even sure why Magnus thought he needed this. Alec knew people were attractive. What did it matter if he never talked about it to anyone? Alec shifted uncomfortably on the couch. Still, he nodded and agreed to the bet. It was a strange request but not the worst thing Magnus could’ve asked for. A simple thing to agree to, really.

Magnus smiled, snapped his fingers, and a translucent image appeared over his open palm. It was a man, reclining back into a pose on one elbow. His shirt was undone to show off his tanned chest, his dark hair curling up from his forehead, and his face was set in a concentrated furrow with his lips lightly parted.

It absolutely was the man he’d crushed on when he was younger. Heat filled Alec’s cheeks a third time.

He looked up to find Magnus smiling. It wasn’t smug like Alec had expected; it was gentle and kind, so kind that Alec had to look away as his chest constricted.

***

The next day when Alec walked the halls of the Institute after a mission debriefing with some of his subordinates, he saw Luke there again even though they didn’t have a meeting. He was leaning against a wall, talking softly to Alec’s mother. Her face was more radiant than Alec had seen in years and she was laughing quietly at whatever Luke had said.

Alec paused to take in the scene. He watched as Luke folded his arms across his chest and his mother rested her hand lightly on Luke’s flexed bicep. His mother was falling hard and fast.

Alec decided right then and there to support their courtship in every way. If it turned out they were to be matched permanently, Alec would accept Luke with no more hesitation.

Magnus was right. Luke _was_ a handsome man. And an honorable one. It would be a blessing from the Angel to welcome such a man into his family. Even if Alec had to accept Clary along with him.


End file.
